Losing 60 minutes of
shuteye may not seem like much when it comes affecting
your fitness, but it can take a toll on your running
routine for several days if you don’t make some
simple adjustments. Fortunately, you can keep the
overall grogginess away with some prep heading into
daylight saving and some extra motivation to not swat
the snooze button before your long run the next morning
(or race).

Just follow these five
tips to keep your training on track.

1. Go for a run the night before.
A good night’s rest during this weekend is vital
for your body’s clock to transition to the new
weekday schedule. For starters, go for a run on Saturday
because exercise will significantly improve your snooze
quality. Michael Breus, Ph.D., a runner and sleep
specialist also recommends reducing your alcohol and
caffeine consumption this weekend.

“Alcohol keeps
you in the lighter stages of sleep,” he says.
“Calm your caffeine consumption down by 2 p.m.
on Saturday—that will help get you into deeper
stages of sleep that night.”

2.
Adjust your sleep schedule.
Go to bed 30 minutes earlier on the night of daylight
saving and sleep in 30 minutes later Sunday morning,
Breus recommends. “It takes the circadian clock
in the body about a day to get used to the change,”
he says. Putting in the extra Z’s during the
weekend time shift will help you feel less tired if
you have to get a run in before work Monday morning.

3.
You can still run at the same times you normally do...
Stick to your same weekday running schedule. If you
normally run at 6:30 a.m., run at that time Monday
morning even though it will feel (and appear outside)
like it’s 5:30 a.m. for a few days. This will
help you transition to the new schedule faster.

4. ...but you
may want to wait until the sun comes up.
If you feel exceptionally tired during those first
few morning runs, try to head out after the sun comes
up. This, sadly, is easier when the clock moves back
in the fall when you get those early-morning rays.
“When light hits the optic nerve, it tells your
brain to stop producing melatonin,” Breus says.
That’s important because
according to a recent study published in the journal
Neuron, your body produces the hormone melatonin to
induce sleep. Exposing your body to light will block
its production helping you feel more awake.

5.
Keep your alarm clock far away from your bed.
This is a simple but effective trick to get you out
from under the covers when your internal clock isn’t
fully adjusted, Breus says. “Really you’re
just going to need extra motivation to wake up.”
The key is to just get up and out the door. If you
do that, after a few days your schedule will go right
back to feeling normal, he says.

Sub-2-hour marathon possible by 2032,
researcher says
Australian researcher Simon D. Angus may have published the
most sophisticated analysis yet of when a sub-2 marathon is
likely, by how much, and what the female equivalent might
be

Statistician Simon D. Angus
of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, writing
in Medicine
& Science inSports
& Exercise, says the earliest we’re likely
to see a sub-2 marathon is 13 years from now. His prediction
is that the chance of it happening by May 2032 are about
10 per cent (or one in 10), and that we could see a
man run 1:58:05 and a woman run 2:05:31.

Angus claims this is the
first study to consider when a sub-2 is likely, just
how much under two hours humans can be expected to run,
by what date, and at various probabilities (taking into
account at what rate, and by how much, the records have
been improved upon in the past). It may also be the
first study to seriously consider how fast we can expect
to see a woman run the marathon in the future. Angus
uses statistical modeling to arrive at his predictions.

He also defends his use
of the 10 per cent likelihood benchmark by pointing
out that record-breaking performances in the marathon
are, by nature, extraordinary and unusual, and therefore
we should be asking not “when is it likely?”
but “when might it be possible?”

(By this logic, Angus has calculated
that the odds of a sub-2 marathon happening by 2050,
rather than 2032, are one in four, or 25 per cent.)

According to Angus, speculation about
how fast a human could run 42.2K goes back to at least
1925, when the British medical journal Lancet published
a study by A. V. Hill entitled “The Physiological
Basis of Athletic Records.” As time has passed
and more data has become available as more marathons
are run, it’s become possible to predict future
performances with greater accuracy. For example, some
years ago researcher M. J. Joyner predicted a sub-2
marathon by 2021-2022, but Angus, based on more advanced
methods used by Angus, he believes that prediction was
overly optimistic. (Joyner & Ruiz’s study
published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 2011
uses “linear extrapolation without accounting
for variability, compared to the non-linear, stochastic
modeling of the present work.”)

While many of us were asleep
or heading to bed last night, Rachel Cliff was out pounding
the streets over in Japan at the Nagoya Women’s
Marathon. A rising star over the last few years, this
is the second record Cliff has broken in the last 14
months. Finishing in 2:26:56, the smile on Rachel’s
face tells the whole story.

Deservingly,
Cliff has received many congratulatory messages via
social over the last day celebrating her success. From
former Athletics Canada Head Coach, Peter Eriksson,
to Canada Running Series’ Alan Brookes, race organizer
extraordinaire, Canada’s circle of elite runners—and
many others—everyone was super happy to see Cliff
run so strong to break this record.

Until recently Cliff may have been seen
as the underdog, but make no mistake this woman has
been working hard for as long as I have known her. Couple
that with her kindness, plus her intellectual prowess,
she is a role model that all women, young and old alike,
can relate to and look up to.

Previously the women’s marathon
record (2:28:00) was held by Lanni Marchant, another
decorated distance runner in Canada. Marchant has been
battling injuries since 2017, but is expected to make
a return this summer; expect her to be a top contender
in the marathon heading in the trials for Tokyo. Marchant
is one valiant competitor and one of the fiercest women
out there.

Cliff is not the only one to break a
record in the early days of 2019. Back in January I
wrote about Gabriela DeBues-Stafford breaking the indoor
5000m record (14:57), and a few weeks after that she
smashed the indoor mile record (4:24.80). Both Madeleine
Kelly and Jenna Westaway dipped under Diane Cummin’s
indoor 1000m record; since Jenna was ahead of Maddy
she will be listed as your record holder. Westaway went
on a week later to break Melissa Bishop’s indoor
800m record, and is the first woman to dip under the
2 minute barrier in Canada: running 1:59.87. I almost
forgot, Jess O’Connell broke the indoor 3000m
record the week before she was 2nd at the NACAC 10k
X-Country Championships over in Trinidad.

There must be something in the water
with all these records going down. It starts with a
new rise of great coaching in this country. In addition,
I attest the rise of women’s running in Canada
to the close knit community. We women here love and
support each other. We work together, we celebrate each
other’s success, and when we do that, we all rise
up.

Sasha Gollish won a gold medal in
the half-marathon at the 2013 Maccabiah Games, a bronze
medal in the 1500m at the 2015 Pan American Games, and
gold medals at the 2017 Maccabiah Games in the 800m,
1,500m, and 5,000m events. She is an elite runner and
senior writer at iRun.

Upcoming Local Events

May
4, 2019

The Laurentian University XC and Indoor
Track Team will be hosting the 2019 Black Flies Track
and Field Meet at the Laurentian Community Track. The
meet will run from approximately 10am to 4pm. The meet
will be open to all athletes in Grades 7 and 8, High School,
University and Open.

We have FREE run club Wednesday nights
at 6pm and Sunday mornings at 8:30am.

Track
North News - by Dick
Moss

U SPORTS Track Championships
- Results

Laurentian’s Megan
Crocker competed in the U SPORTS Indoor Track and Field
Championships this weekend, at the U. of Manitoba’s
James Daly Fieldhouse in Winnipeg.

As the first Laurentian runner in 10
years to compete at the university track and field nationals,
Crocker made the most of her opportunity, turning in
a top-10 finish in the 3000m with a time of 10:11.23.

Competing in an elite field against
the country's best runners, Crocker entered the meet
ranked 12th in the 3000m. In a highly tactical 12.5
lap race, she remained with the lead pack until the
leaders surged at the 2000m mark, then fought to cover
the increase in pace. She was just nosed out at the
line in a battle for 9th place.

This concludes Laurentian’s indoor
track season. Now we focus on the summer track and Fall
XC seasons!